19th Century British Novel (Jane Eyre)

1. Jane Eyre
Introduction
Lecture 1

2. Charlotte Bronte
• Charlotte Bronte was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Bronte sisters who survived
into adulthood and whose novels have become classics of English literature.
• She first published her works (including her best known novel, Jane Eyre) under the pen name Currer
Bell.
• Charlotte Bronte was born on 21April 1816 in Market Street Thornton, west of Bradford in the West
Riding ofYorkshire, the third of the six children of Maria and Patrick Bronte an IrishAnglican
clergyman.
• In 1820 her family moved a few miles to the village of Haworth, where her father had been appointed
perpetual curate of St Michael andAllAngels Church. Maria died of cancer on 15 September 1821,
leaving five daughters, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Emily andAnne, and a son, Branwell, to be taken
care of by her sister, Elizabeth Branwell.

3. Marriage
• Before the publication of Villette, Brontë received a proposal of marriage fromArthur Bell Nicholls, who had
long been in love with her.
• She initially turned down his proposal and her father objected to the union at least partly because of Nicholls's
poor financial status.
• Elizabeth Gaskell, who believed that marriage provided "clear and defined duties" that were beneficial for a
woman, encouraged Brontë to consider the positive aspects of such a union and tried to use her contacts to
engineer an improvement in Nicholls's finances.
• Brontë meanwhile was increasingly attracted to Nicholls and by January 1854 she had accepted his proposal..
• By all accounts, her marriage was a success and Brontë found herself very happy in a way that was new to her.
Death Brontë became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health.

4. Death
• Brontë became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to
Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness".
• She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, three weeks before her 39th birthday.
• Her death certificate gives the cause of death as tuberculosis, but biographers including Claire Harman
suggest that she died from dehydration and malnourishment due to vomiting caused by severe morning
sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum.
• The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell's biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë was published
in 1857.
• It was an important step for a leading female novelist to write a biography of another.

5. Summary: Chapter 1
The novel opens on a dreary November afternoon at Gateshead, the home of the wealthy Reed family.
Ayoung girl named Jane Eyre sits in the drawing room reading Bewick’s History of British Birds.
Jane’s aunt, Mrs. Reed, has forbidden her niece to play with her cousins Eliza, Georgiana, and the bullying
John.
John chides Jane for being a lowly orphan who is only permitted to live with the Reeds because of his
mother’s charity.
John then hurls a book at the young girl, pushing her to the end of her patience.
Jane finally erupts, and the two cousins fight.
Mrs. Reed holds Jane responsible for the scuffle and sends her to the “red-room”—the frightening chamber
in which her Uncle Reed died—as punishment.

6. Summary: Chapter 2
• Two servants, MissAbbott and Bessie Lee, escort Jane to the red-room, and Jane resists them with all of her
might.
• Once locked in the room, Jane catches a glimpse of her ghastly figure in the mirror, and, shocked by her meager
presence, she begins to reflect on the events that have led her to such a state.
• She remembers her kind Uncle Reed bringing her to Gateshead after her parents’death, and she recalls his dying
command that his wife promise to raise Jane as one of her own.
• Suddenly, Jane is struck with the impression that her Uncle Reed’s ghost is in the room, and she imagines that he
has come to take revenge on his wife for breaking her promise.
• Jane cries out in terror, but her aunt believes that she is just trying to escape her punishment, and she ignores her
pleas.
• Jane faints in exhaustion and fear.

7. Summary: Chapter 3
• When she wakes, Jane finds herself in her own bedroom, in the care of Mr. Lloyd, the family’s kind apothecary.
• Bessie is also present, and she expresses disapproval of her mistress’s treatment of Jane.
• Jane remains in bed the following day, and Bessie sings her a song.
• Mr. Lloyd speaks with Jane about her life at Gateshead, and he suggests to Jane’s aunt that the girl be sent away
to school, where she might find happiness.
• Jane is cautiously excited at the possibility of leaving Gateshead.
• Soon after her own reflections on the past in the red-room, Jane learns more of her history when she overhears a
conversation between Bessie and MissAbbott. Jane’s mother was a member of the wealthy Reed family, which
strongly disapproved of Jane’s father, an impoverished clergyman.
• When they married, Jane’s wealthy maternal grandfather wrote his daughter out of his will.
• Not long after Jane was born, Jane’s parents died from typhus, which Jane’s father contracted while caring for the
poor.

8. Summary: Chapter 4
• “I am glad you are no relation of mine. I will never call you aunt again as long as I live. I will never
come to visit you when I am grown up; and if any one asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me,
I will say the very thought of you makes me sick. . . .”
• About two months have passed, and Jane has been enduring even crueler treatment from her aunt and
cousins while anxiously waiting for the arrangements to be made for her schooling.
• Now Jane is finally told she may attend the girls’school Lowood, and she is introduced to
Mr. Brocklehurst, the stern-faced man who runs the school. Jane’s aunt warns Mr. Brocklehurst that the
girl also has a propensity for lying.

9. Summary: Chapter 5
• Four days after meeting Mr. Brocklehurst, Jane boards the 6 a.m. coach and travels alone to Lowood.
• When she arrives at the school, the day is dark and rainy, and she is led through a grim building that will
be her new home.
• The following day, Jane is introduced to her classmates and learns the daily routine, which keeps the
girls occupied from before dawn until dinner.
• Miss Temple, the superintendent of the school, is very kind, while one of Jane’s teachers, Miss.
Scatcherd, is unpleasant, particularly in her harsh treatment of a young student named Helen Burns.
• Jane and Helen befriend one another, and Jane learns from Helen that Lowood is a charity school
maintained for female orphans, which means that the Reeds have paid nothing to put her there.

10. Summary: Chapter 6
• On Jane’s second morning at Lowood, the girls are unable to wash, as the water in their pitchers is frozen.
• Jane quickly learns that life at the school is harsh.
• The girls are underfed, overworked, and forced to sit still during seemingly endless sermons.
• Still, she takes comfort in her new friendship with Helen, who impresses Jane with her expansive knowledge and
her ability to patiently endure even the cruelest treatment from Miss Scatcherd.
• Helen tells Jane that she practices a doctrine of Christian endurance, which means loving her enemies and
accepting her privation.
• Jane disagrees strongly with such meek tolerance of injustice, but Helen takes no heed of Jane’s arguments.
• Helen is self-critical only because she sometimes fails to live up to her ascetic standards: she believes that she is a
poor student and chastises herself for daydreaming about her home and family when she should be concentrating
on her studies.

11. Summary: Chapter 7
• For most of Jane’s first month at Lowood, Mr. Brocklehurst spends his time away from the school.
• When he returns, Jane becomes quite nervous because she remembers his promise to her aunt, Mrs.
Reed, to warn the school about Jane’s supposed habit of lying.
• When Jane inadvertently drops her slate in Mr. Brocklehurst’s presence, he is furious and tells her she is
careless.
• He orders Jane to stand on a stool while he tells the school that she is a liar, and he forbids the other
students to speak to her for the rest of the day.
• Helen makes Jane’s day of humiliation endurable by providing her friend with silent consolation—she
covertly smiles at Jane every time she passes by.

12. Summary: Chapter 8
• Finally, at five o’clock, the students disperse, and Jane collapses to the floor.
• Deeply ashamed, she is certain that her reputation at Lowood has been ruined, but Helen assures her that most of
the girls felt more pity for Jane than revulsion at her alleged deceitfulness.
• Jane tells Miss Temple that she is not a liar, and relates the story of her tormented childhood at Gateshead.
• Miss Temple seems to believe Jane and writes to Mr. Lloyd requesting confirmation of Jane’s account of events.
• Miss Temple offers Jane and Helen tea and seed cake, endearing herself even further to Jane.
• When Mr. Lloyd’s letter arrives and corroborates Jane’s story, Miss Temple publicly declares Jane to be innocent.
• Relieved and contented, Jane devotes herself to her studies.
• She excels at drawing and makes progress in French.

13. Summary: Chapter 9
• In the spring, life at Lowood briefly seems happier, but the damp forest dell in which the school resides is a
breeding ground for typhus, and in the warm temperatures more than half the girls fall ill with the disease.
• Jane remains healthy and spends her time playing outdoors with a new friend, MaryAnn Wilson.
• Helen is sick, but not with typhus—Jane learns the horrific news that her friend is dying of consumption.
• One evening, Jane sneaks into Miss Temple’s room to see Helen one last time.
• Helen promises Jane that she feels little pain and is happy to be leaving the world’s suffering behind.
• Jane takes Helen into her arms, and the girls fall asleep.
• During the night, Helen dies.
• Her grave is originally unmarked, but fifteen years after her death, a gray marble tablet is placed over the spot
(presumably by Jane), bearing the single word Resurgam, Latin for “I shall rise again.”

14. Summary: Chapter 10
• After Mr. Brocklehurst’s negligent treatment of the girls at Lowood is found to be one of the causes of
the typhus epidemic, a new group of overseers is brought in to run the school.
• Conditions improve dramatically for the young girls, and Jane excels in her studies for the next six years.
• After spending two more years at Lowood as a teacher, Jane decides she is ready for a change, partly
because Miss Temple gets married and leaves the school.
• She advertises in search of a post as a governess and accepts a position at a manor called Thornfield.